Fukushima residents insist they are 'Happy'

People living close to Japan's crippled nuclear reactor dance to Pharrell Williams hit to show that life continues as normal

By Julian Ryall, Tokyo

12:10PM BST 20 Jun 2014

The residents of Fukushima Prefecture have had a pretty testing couple of years - from Japan's worst earthquake in living memory to a devastating tsunami and the meltdown of three reactors at the local nuclear plant - but they're still pretty "happy", they say.

Inspired by the chart-topping song by Pharrell Williams, more than 200 people from around the prefecture danced for a video produced by the CEO of a local social media company, who said she wanted to show the world that life isn't so bad in a part of Japan that some believe has been reduced to a nuclear wasteland

"Many people might think that Fukushima has been unhappy since 3-11 (the March 11, 2011 tsunami)," Hitomi Kumasaka wrote on the page for the YouTube video. "But it's not true.

"With this video, I want you to know that we are happy and healthy, just like you.

The four-minute video opens with the English-language announcement that a bullet train is pulling into Fukushima Station.

The contributors - of varying dance ability - include monks outside their temple, farmers, students, a pair of professional wrestlers, a hairdresser and the mayor of Fukushima City.

The YouTube cliphas been viewed more than 320,000 times by people in 121 countries. Kumasaka said she hopes it will eradicate the image of Fukushima as a dark and sad place where people live in fear of contracting an illness caused by radiation leaks from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant.

Media attention has focused on reports of radioactive water being released into the Pacific Ocean, fish contaminated with radiation and efforts to cleanse thousands of square miles of forest, farmland and communities. But local people insist that life outside the 12-mile exclusion zone around the plant continues largely as normal.

They are less happy at the way in which their political leaders have handled the crisis, however.

In the latest ill-conceived government comment, Nobuteru Ishihara, the environment minister, has been criticised for stating that finding a dumping place for contaminated soil is merely a question of how much money local authorities are offered.